Fringe: The Road Not Taken

By Rhea Dee
Good news first: Fringe got renewed! Yay! One less show to worry about it. Frustrating news? Next week’s season finale is probably going to be the most aggravating thing that ever was. And this episode got busy in setting up that ultimate season finale frustration. It must be a JJ thing.

This episode follows the same pattern of the past few episodes; the standalone that branches into the ZFT storyline. However, there were a couple of key differences this time around: first, the episode begins with Broyles making an announcement to the whole FBI division that Bell is a suspect in the ZFT case, effectively making Bell FBI Enemy No. 1. That’s why I like Broyles. He gets stuff done and more importantly, he’s under nobody’s thumb. Second, I think the monster of the week/ZFT connection was actually more subtle this time around. In the last episode we had a man offering up information about ZFT, and in the episode before that, Olivia confronted someone who, like her, was also part of the Cortexiphan experiments. And while this episode did have Walter admitting to Team Fringe that he wrote the ZFT book, I felt like the real ZFT tie in were Olivia’s glimpses into the alternate universe.

Numerous times during this case, Olivia slipped into a sort of trance while investigating the monster of the week, a pyrokinetic that literally blows up in the middle of the street. When Olivia first sees the charred corpse, she thinks she sees two corpses, but no one else sees this and the image disappears after a few minutes. A similar incident happens in Broyles’ office a while later. Olivia confronts Walter about it, and Walter draws up a little map saying that every time we make a choice, an alternate universe is created for the choice we didn’t make, creating a reality around the other choice. Olivia is somehow glimpsing into these roads not taken (episode title name check!). And even though Olivia uses a mind trip to the alternative universe to get information about the victim in the real world, I couldn’t help but think that the world she slipped into is going to be the focus of next week’s finale. If not, well then it was quite an interesting little world to glimpse into. Charlie has a battle scar, buildings are on fire, and there’s some sort of quarantine going on. Also, black phones are red.

Other stuff going on: Harris, evil busybody that hates Olivia, waltzes back onto the scene to tell Olivia to stop her Bell investigation. And then to be even more insulting, he tells her that she’s too emotional and that she has to undergo a psych evaluation which could seriously damage her reputation. What a frakker.

When was the last time we saw Harris? As much as I love to hate Harris, I felt his sudden return was kind of awkward. I mean, did we really need his henpecking antics this close to a season finale? Actually, yes. Turns out he’s one of the men related to pyrokinetic girl being all combustion-y. I always knew he was more than just an office prick! He’s just a straight up prick. And to make up for all his shenanigans against Olivia, he suffers an undignified death. I will freely admit to being totally evil and laughing out loud when pyro girl’s twin sister (who is also a pyro) made him go all explode-y, which is a very fitting end to the man who was a thorn in Olivia’s side.

On the lighter side of Fringe, Peter shows more of his tender son side when he builds his father a device to help salvage his water damaged LPs. Peter also uses this hipster device (I have no other word for it…I mean it has a freaking turntable attached to it) to help Team Fringe in their investigation. Walter’s face when Peter tells him that the device is for him just makes the world all peachy. The touching father/son moments on this show are few and far between, so when they do actually happen they come across as super sweet.

And then there’s that ending. That ending that didn’t seem to want to end! They just kept cramming stuff in there.

Well, first Walter finds the missing ethics chapter of the ZFT book that justifies the whole ZFT purpose. And then right after that, Baldo pays him a visit and says it’s “time to go.” And Walter just goes along with it! (Also that had to be the easiest ‘Where’s Baldo’ since that episode about him. Apparently, I can only spot him when he’s right in front of my face.)

On top of that, Nina gets shot by assassins. (I thought she died, but watching the promo again revealed that they’re keeping her fate up in the air). We also haven’t seen Nina in a while, not since Olivia’s double crossing sweetie pie died died. (Right?) Like with Harris, this return was a bit jarring at first but served an ultimate purpose: her getting shot. And of course this comes after very shifty scenes of her throughout the episode, ending when she visits Broyles to discuss the return of Baldo. Unfortunately, the great mystery of who shot Nina is ruined by the promo for next week, where they just up and say who freaking did it. (What the hell, show?)

And about that promo…why was it the most spoilerific this that ever was? It may have revealed a bit too much about what’s going to happen in next week’s episode, which is stupid. The point is too keep some secrets. On this, Fringe needs to take a hint from the Lost promos which show a whole lotta nothing mixed with a couple of shots of Jack crying and Kate looking distressed.

One last thing: what did y’all think of all that Star Trek name dropping? Cute, or just too much?

Also, Walter likes Frankenberry cereal. How awesome is that?

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Rhea Dee teeters between hipster and geek (at least that’s what that one quiz said).  She spends her time collecting vintage junk, daydreaming about Eli Roth, and pondering the genius of John Carpenter soundtracks.  She really likes horror films.

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